Drexel University 24/7 SUPPORT FOR ANYWHERE, ANYTIME TEACHING AND LEARNING Limited Resources, Unlimited Demand: Recognizing the Need to Increase Student Support Today’s student lives, works, learns, and communicates QUICK FACTS • Blackboard Services/Products: Student Services, Learn, Mobile, Collaborate in a technology-driven environment. They want imme- • Enrollments: 7,500 fully online students diacy, easy access to information, and support 24/7. • Headquarters: Philadelphia, PA Drexel University realized that in order to stay competi- • Student Population: Worldwide tive, they had to have the services and technology solu- • Blackboard Student Services client since: 2005 tions to keep up with these increasing needs. • Size: 100 degrees and certificate An early innovator with a strong academic reputation, programs offered by 7 colleges Drexel University has extended access to working and adult students by building their offerings to include more than 100 different fully online degree programs. For their efforts they earned the Sloan Consortium Award for Excellence in Institution-Wide Online Education. To ensure the continued success of their online learners, Drexel Online knew they had to deliver easily accessible service—24/7. Simple issues like course availability, assignment upload, and login issues could emergent student population. When they did the be the difference between a student succeeding or math, they realized it was cost prohibitive to hire and failing. In 2005, with programs and enrollments growing scale support internally. Outsourcing help desk support rapidly, their 2-person help desk couldn’t support the was the easy solution. blackboard.com/studentservices The Challenge: At the time of this decision, Drexel’s marketing campaign was “Learn Anytime, Anywhere.” In order to live up to that promise and deal with the added pressure Services, Drexel Online continues to remove technical barriers to teaching and learning. Their students are happier and more successful. Their online program is growing and running more efficiently than ever. of rapid growth, they had many challenges to address, By improving their online educational experience, such as how to: they’re generating results for all stakeholders: Support a growing body of non-traditional students who increasingly expected “Amazon-like” service Provide consistent, highly-available support despite a highly-decentralized environment Gain a better understanding of support needs and support quality through analytics and data Remove technical challenges to help full-time and adjunct faculty focus more on teaching The Solution: Drexel chose Blackboard Student Services as their Students: Offering quick, easy access to the information and support they need and ensuring they never feel alone in the learning process Faculty: Now 100% focused on adding instructional value to students Adjunct Faculty: No longer worried about resolving technical issues while doing their “day jobs” Internal IT Staff: Focused only on the most complex issues and escalations, helping improve the teaching experience Institution’s Bottom Line: Able to expand and can scale support easily shared services partner. Three key criteria led them It’s difficult to keep up with the growing needs of stu- to this decision. They needed a partner with superior dents today, especially when your staff is already over- knowledge of Blackboard products. They wanted a burdened. By utilizing Blackboard Student Services, team that was focused solely on education—who really you’ll have a cost-effective solution to extend your staff understood the needs of students and faculty. They and your services. You’ll be able to support students needed a vendor who had the infrastructure, technol- on their terms and devices, while preventing technical ogy, and financial leverage to support rapid growth. barriers to student success. And by freeing your staff’s Blackboard Student Services met these needs, and time to focus on complex issues, you’ll increase the within a couple months implemented a cost-effective overall administrative efficiency of your institution. solution, including: 24/7 Multi-Channel LMS support including chat, self-service, live tutorials Dedicated Account Management Team Robust Self-Service Knowledge Base See how you can use Blackboard Student Services to make a measurable and long-lasting impact at your institution, just like they did at Drexel University, visit blackboard.com/studentservices. One centralized number for learners in any program to call Shared Service Desk Platform for case management Monthly Reports and Analytics The Results: In an increasingly competitive market, online programs face significant pressure to provide added value to services that will positively impact student success. Now A high quality online program is only as good as the level of support it provides. Jack Mayher VP IT/Operations, Drexel Online in its 6th year of partnership with Blackboard Student blackboard.com/studentservices • 650 Massachusetts Avenue, NW 6th Floor Washington, DC 20001 • 1.800.424.9299, ext. 4 Copyright © 1997-2011. Blackboard Inc. All rights reserved. Blackboard, the Blackboard logo, BbWorld, Blackboard Learn, Blackboard Transact, Blackboard Connect, Blackboard Mobile, Blackboard Collaborate, the Blackboard Outcomes System, Behind the Blackboard, and Connect-ED are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackboard Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Blackboard products may be covered by one or more of the following U.S. patents: 7,493,396, 7,558,853, 7,816,878.